A 28-year-old woman has admitted stealing an NHS iPad from Stevenage’s Lister Hospital.

Stevenage magistrates heard that Kim Windle – of Cliff Parade in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex – took the iPad worth £600 on October 24 last year.

A spokesman for the East and North Herts NHS Trust told the Comet afterwards that patient data was not put at risk by the theft.

“Increasingly NHS trust staff have access to encrypted iPads to enable them to carry out their duties when caring for their patients,” he said.

“Although these iPads are password-protected, in the main they are not used to store data but to access systems and databases where information is held.

“While patient data was not put at risk through the theft of this iPad, it will have inconvenienced the NHS trust’s staff, who used it in caring for their patients.

“On learning that the iPad had been stolen back in October last year, the NHS trust informed police immediately and worked with them in providing information that could prove useful to the investigation that resulted in Ms Windle’s conviction.”

Chairman of the bench Nicholas Moss ordered Windle to pay £300 in compensation.